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Code change aligns state rules with new law: D and F schools designated "priority" and parents given transfer and scholarship options
Summary
Department staff briefed the board on administrative-code changes to reflect recent legislative changes to the Alabama Accountability Act: priority status will be assigned to D- and F-rated schools and families will have four transfer or scholarship options; districts must notify parents in affected schools.
Board members were briefed on a proposed administrative-code change to align department rules with recent changes to the Alabama Accountability Act. Department staff said the legislation replaced the old bottom-percentage metric with a clarity measure: any school graded D or F on the most recent state report card will be designated a "priority" school.
The code amendment clarifies the options available to families whose children attend a priority school: (1) remain enrolled at the priority school; (2) transfer to a comparable non-priority school within the same district, with the district required to provide transportation for one designated comparable school; (3) transfer to a comparable school in another district if that district accepts out-of-district students and space is available; or (4) receive a scholarship to attend a nonpublic Alabama school that accepts scholarship students.
Staff noted the change will expand the list of eligible schools in some years because the list is now based on D and F grades rather than a bottom percentage. That expansion means more parents will receive notification letters; the department said it will send a standardized form letter that districts can customize on their letterhead and that the department will publish guidance ahead of the fall report-card release. Marcus Vandiver, the department's accountability specialist, walked board members through the procedural order for offering options and emphasized that some options (transfer out of district or private scholarships) depend on receiving districts and private schools accepting students.
Board members asked how transportation obligations work; staff said the district must provide transportation only when a student transfers to a comparable school inside the same district (option 2). The department noted that private-school scholarships are routed to the nonpublic school (via scholarship-granting organizations) rather than directly to parents and that private schools vary in whether they accept scholarship students.
Staff also emphasized that some aspects of the method remain: the department will publish the list of priority schools after the state report card is released, and districts will be responsible for notifying parents of their options. No formal vote was taken on the code change during the work session; the item was presented as an informational alignment to the new statute.
